Arsene Wenger proudly boasts about his record at unearthing world-class stars.
Yet Arsenal have nothing on their Champions League opponents tonight.

The Arsenal manager defends to the hilt his ability not just to survive in the absence of those players he has discovered, but to thrive. It is fitting, then, that his immediate future should be decided in Italy's cold, foggy north, home to Udinese, Europe's greatest talent factory.

It is in Friuli, on the damp border with Slovenia, where a side historically little more than an afterthought have hit upon a scouting system that is the envy of Europe. It has turned relegation candidates into Champions League contenders, swelled Udinese's coffers by millions and spread stars throughout the continent.

The most recent, of course, is the Chilean Alexis Sanchez, sold to Barcelona this summer for £32 million. His absence, like that of the Swiss international Gokhan Inler and the Colombian Cristian Zapata, will be felt by Francesco Guidolin's side tonight. They, too, have departed, for Napoli and Villarreal, to be replaced by yet more unpolished diamonds. That is the Udinese way.

"It is a system we have had in place for many years," says the club's technical director, Fabrizio Larini. "It has let Udinese compete with much more powerful clubs both on the pitch and in the transfer market. Other clubs now have equivalent systems, but we were among the first. It let us get to players before other people had spotted them. It let us punch above our weight."

It is a scouting network that requires complete dedication from a team of no more than 20 people, overseen by Larini and Gino Pozzo, the Barcelona-based son of the club's owner.

It boasts a video lab, staffed 24 hours a day, in which tapes of every game of every league in the world are reviewed. "There is always someone watching games," says Larini. "From various leagues across the planet, people who are trained to look out for the things we need. But there are lots of other people who are crucial to the way it works: technicians, engineers, and local scouts all over the world, who send tapes back."

Players are recommended by that network of observers - recruited specifically for their detailed knowledge of specific areas - who are overseen by five supervisors. When names are raised, tapes are checked, and trips made. The club concentrate not on the areas already saturated with sides scouring for the next big thing - France, Portugal, Brazil and Argentina - but those nations liminal to football's giants.

And so tonight, the Colombian Pablo Armero - linked with Liverpool - and the Chilean Mauricio Isla will line up against Arsenal alongside the Ghanaian Kwadwo Asamoah and the Slovenian Samir Handanovic. All from budget markets, all bought at budget costs, and now likely to fetch boutique prices.

Sanchez, of course, is testament to how the Udinese process works. He was spotted as a 16 year-old playing for his local side, Cobreloa, and was the subject of a £2 million bid almost immediately. Crucially, according to Larini, he was not rushed straight to Italy to be presented in a whirl of flashbulbs and hyperbole and then left to rot in the reserves. Instead, he was loaned to Colo Colo, then River Plate, each a gradual but competitive step up. Only at 18 was he deemed ready for Serie A.

Four years later, Udinese cashed in their chips. A £30 million profit. Some ploughed back into Guidolin's squad, the rest to pay for the video room, for the technicians and scouts. "The most important find we ever made was Marcio Amoroso," says Larini. "Sanchez is the most famous, but Amoroso secured the future of the club."

The Brazilian striker, signed from Flamengo after being sent to play in Japan, was bought for nothing. He was sold to Parma for £34 million, in 1999. There was no mourning in Udine. They survived. They continue to thrive.